The invention pertains to a robot interaction system comprising a robot with a robot control unit provided with types and modes of operation which influence an assigned human-robot interface.
It is known from the prior art that metallurgical and/or roiling plants can be equipped with manipulators or robots, especially industrial robots. Manipulators for connecting a ladle shroud to a tundish, for example, or for transporting heavy bricks during the work of lining a converter have existed for a long time. Fully automated robots are also used to lacquer coils or to spray-coat an electric-arc furnace. Common to most of these applications is that the robot in question is adapted to only one task and is designed specifically for it.
From WO 2005/118182 A1, furthermore, the use of multifunction robots, i.e., those which execute more than one task, is known, wherein, according to this prior art, the robot system is designed in such a way that it can perform several different activities on a casting platform. A robot system which comprises a multifunction robot which maintains the bottom of a ladle in a ladle maintenance stand is known from WO 2008/025562 A1.
Although the robots known from the prior art, especially the multifunction robots, can perform different tasks, their functionality is usually directed at fully automated use.
Alternatively, the human being in his function as employee or worker can at best intervene in the work activity of the multifunction robot by making use of its remote-controlled manipulation operating mode. During the activity and in the operating state of the multifunction robot, the area in which robot works and moves must remain separate at all times from that of the worker, so that the robot will not endanger the human being. To ensure the satisfactory functionality of the robot in question, however, fully automated solutions demand a certain measure of necessary sensory or detection capacity, dexterity, and/or decision-making ability to execute a work process successfully. In the case of complicated work procedures, therefore, such systems soon reach their limits with respect to the costs necessary for their realization, with respect to the stability of the system, and with respect to the safety of the process. Precisely in metallurgical and rolling plants, however, it is often necessary during the course of certain manual jobs for the human being, that is, the worker or employee working in the area in question, to make a well-founded and rapid decision concerning what is to be done next on the basis of his immediate observations. Thus, in the case of maintenance work on a casting ladle, decisions must be made about which parts can continue to be used and which ones must be replaced. This means that the actual situation must be correctly determined, but it also requires a certain measure of decision-making ability so that the correct decision can be made for the case at hand. According to the solutions known so far from the prior art, the industrial robots will in such cases be moved aside or immobilized or locked down, and a worker will then enter the area where the robot moves and works, which is surrounded by protective fences, in order to perform the necessary inspection and make the necessary decision. In the case of procedures which involve frequent alternation between work activities and observation or inspection activities, a solution of this type is unsatisfactory because of the frequent need to shut down the robot. Certain simple manual tasks, furthermore, can turn out to be disproportionately complicated from an engineering standpoint for a fully automated or even for a remote-controlled manipulator, or they can be characterized by an unfavorable cost-to-benefit ratio in the sense that, for the robot to perform an activity which would be simple for a human being, the robot system would have to be equipped with a highly complex system of sensors. The simple removal of a small safety element such as a cotter pin is easy for a human being, because he can determine the location of the cotter pin visually and pull it out easily by hand. For a robot to perform the same task, it would have to be equipped with a complicated system of sensors to make it possible to detect the position of the element, in this case the cotter pin. Only then will the robot be able to remove the cotter pin. Even if this is to be done by means of a remote manipulator, for example, the activity is still complicated, unreliable, and slow.
One way of reducing the severity of this problem is to adapt the workplace in question and the associated working equipment to the needs of automation. WO 2008/025562 A1, for example, proposes a concrete implementation according to which a robot can replace the slide gate mechanism of a steel ladle. The disadvantage of this system is that the effort required to undertake such an adaptation leads to considerable cost, and as a result the economic efficiency of a plant equipped in this way is decreased because of the associated investment costs. In the case of the example described in WO 2008/025562 Al, each casting ladle must be equipped with a corresponding slide gate system and the associated mounting device.
Another significant disadvantage of the known systems is that use can under certain conditions interfere with the accessibility of the installation in question. Whereas, in the case of manipulators, safety is ensured by the responsible operation by the human workers, that is, by the operating personnel in question, the law (in Europe, for example, Guideline 2006/42/EU) dictates that, in the case of conventional, fully automated industrial robots, the area in which the robot works and moves must be kept separate from the area where human beings, i.e., the operating personnel, work.
Finally, it is known from WO 2007/057061 A1 that the active work robot can be pivoted out of the actual work area, so that the operating personnel can gain access to the work area. Pivoting the robot out of the way, however, requires a certain amount of time, so that, when danger threatens, it is possible for valuable time to pass before the operating personnel can enter the hazardous area and counteract the threat of danger.
The invention is based on the goal of creating a solution which allows a more flexible adaptation of a robot or of a robot system to different degrees of human-robot interaction.